Article May 14, 2012 Issue

A lesson from Denali

Darci Niles

Darci and her husband, Josh, admire Denali.

Not too long ago  my husband and I were visiting Denali National Park in Alaska. As a photographer, I love taking in spiritual lessons with the wilderness as my palette. On this trip, I learned how persistence and patience can be essential to our growth. 

On our first day of hiking it was a bit foggy, and all we could see were a few mountains near us. They were pretty big and quite beautiful. The next day it rained so hard we had to hunker down in our tent for over 24 hours. At one point I thought to myself: “What are we doing out here? This is hardly what anyone would call fun!” But we waited out the storm, and it wasn’t long before the sun peeked out here and there, brightening our spirits. We then struck camp and hiked deeper into the park to get a better view of the whole Alaska Range. As we traveled along, we could see some impressive mountains with a soft blanket of snow freshly dusting the peaks. 